1. Field of the invention
This invention relates in general to food processing machinery, and in particular to an apparatus which co-extrudes two bulk food product into a tubular composite product, with one of the food products being an outer liner, and the other food product being an inner core.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One type of food product that has an inner core and an outer layer of a different food product is a Mexican food product known as a tamale. The tamale has an inner core of meat and an outer layer of corn based material. The composite product is tubular and typically wrapped in a corn shuck
Making tamales is time consuming. Particularly in the home and in small restaurants, the process is entirely by hand. The two bulk products, the meat and the corn outer layer will be prepared. Then the tamale is assembled by rolling and filling by hand.
Applicant is not aware of any currently commercially available machinery for forming the tamales in relatively small batches. Applicant is aware of a device utilized in the past which had two side-by-side cylinders, each having a piston. The cylinders connected to a chamber which extended perpendicular to the cylinders. The meat product would be placed in one, while the outer layer product would be placed in the other cylinder. A crank would push both pistons down at the same time. The product would co-extrude within the chamber. Applicant does not believe that these devices are marketed at this time, and is unaware of the quality of the final product produced by that device.